Zero gravity, taking off in Hefei.

Text | Liu Jingqiong, A Zhi

Editor | A Zhi

Cover Source | Provided by the enterprise

Before cars entered the era of intelligence, humans had already envisioned driving flying cars to roam over the city.

In the 1982 movie "Blade Runner", the flying police car named Spinner didn't rely on traditional fuels. It could drive on the road, as well as hover and fly. Its concept designer, Syd Mead, who once designed car exteriors for Ford, later entered the movie and entertainment industry and became famous for designing many classic "future scenarios" for science - fiction fans.

The human desire to fly may have been born when humans first looked up at the stars, which drove the emergence of the initial concept of urban air traffic. Subsequently, aerospace practitioners, automobile practitioners, artificial intelligence practitioners, and even flying enthusiasts from different fields gathered together and began to figure out how to make air flight as routine as driving a car.

Just as science - fiction is born from human imagination of the future, there aren't many precedents to follow when starting a business in emerging fields. Breaking the rules has become a daily occurrence.

Shi Hong is such a person who "grows without following the rules".

He is an avid flyer. He got a flying license and bought aircrafts at his own expense. His cumulative flight time at home and abroad is nearly 500 hours. Perhaps the timing wasn't right. Before 2021, as a serial entrepreneur, Shi Hong experienced ups and downs in several industries but hadn't found his most suitable "main battlefield".

The turning point came in 2021. In February, the "National Comprehensive Three - dimensional Transportation Network Planning Outline" jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council clearly proposed to develop the "low - altitude economy" and listed it alongside the platform economy, hub economy, etc., as an important part of the modern transportation network.

This was the first time the concept of "low - altitude economy" appeared in a national - level planning document. Before that, Shi Hong had been paying attention to electric aircraft products and thinking about their possible future application directions. As the industry consensus began to form, Shi Hong's judgment became clearer: electrification is the third aviation energy revolution, and a new turning point in the aviation industry is coming.

Meanwhile, another group of professional aerospace engineers were brewing a new business venture. Li Yiheng, who graduated from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, already had experience in the R & D and certification of aircraft products at that time. He gathered several industry veterans to start a business, focusing on the R & D and manufacturing of new - energy aircraft. In March 2021, Zero Gravity Aircraft Industry was officially established.

With the technology and clear direction, a complete entrepreneurial team needs talents across the entire value chain.

Introduced by someone, Li Yiheng and Shi Hong hit it off immediately. As the founder and CEO, Li Yiheng took charge of technology and products, while Shi Hong, as the co - founder and COO, was responsible for the business planning and operation management of the company's aircraft.

Aiming at the same future scenario, these two passionate young men became close entrepreneurial partners.

That year, Li Yiheng was 25 years old, and Shi Hong was just 30.

For product development, practicality is more important than parameters

Both Li Yiheng and Shi Hong believe that with the advancement of the energy revolution and the progress of aviation technology, low - altitude flight will gradually become a popular means of transportation, forming a more diverse future transportation ecosystem.

In his first year at Zero Gravity, Shi Hong was pulled by Li Yiheng to restructure the company's product strategy with the core team members. They proposed a three - generation aircraft model strategy different from the mainstream, namely "one generation in maturity, one generation in airworthiness certification, and one generation in pre - research". At that time, Zero Gravity was the only domestic enterprise simultaneously researching and developing three types of aircraft configurations.

This is a typical incremental development approach.

The first - generation product launched by Zero Gravity, the electric fixed - wing aircraft RX1E - A "Ruixiang", is China's first new - energy light - sport aircraft with independent intellectual property rights. It's equivalent to a "new - energy small car" in the flying world, mainly used in scenarios such as primary aircraft sport license training, entertainment flights, experience flights, and low - altitude inspections. Compared with eVTOL, RX1E - A essentially belongs to the eCTOL (electric conventional take - off and landing) product, and its technology is relatively mature, requiring little R & D effort.

In May last year, "Ruixiang" was officially delivered for the first time at Feidong Bailong Airport in Hefei, Anhui. On March 31 this year, "Ruixiang" achieved its first batch delivery, which also announced that Zero Gravity would officially start the era of batch delivery of electric fixed - wing aircraft.

Zero Gravity's RX1E - A "Ruixiang" achieved batch delivery

The second - generation product, ZG - ONE "Quefei", adopts a multi - rotor configuration and is Zero Gravity's first eVTOL. It's more like an "air electric sightseeing bus", starting from serving the cultural and tourism market and covering various scenarios such as short - distance sightseeing, short - distance transportation connections, and emergency rescue.

The multi - rotor configuration isn't the most difficult in terms of the technical route, but it will mature faster than tilt - rotor eVTOL. "Quefei" is also the product that Zero Gravity will focus on promoting in the next two years. Currently, the application for the TC certificate of "Quefei" has been accepted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and it's expected to obtain the TC certificate and start market - oriented operation in early 2026.

The third - generation product, ZG - T6, is a tilt - rotor eVTOL. Zero Gravity regards it as the ultimate solution for future low - altitude transportation. Positioned as a future "air taxi", it can carry six people and enable efficient travel between cities and inter - cities. It's expected to be put into market operation around 2028, which is closer to the future transportation scenario we see in science - fiction works.

From "Ruixiang" to "Quefei" and then to ZG - T6, the R & D effort doesn't need to be invested in all three generations of products simultaneously. But if the rhythm is right, Zero Gravity can launch products into the market during each new product R & D cycle. Simply put, it's best to make money while investing.

The three - generation aircraft model strategy is more like a pursuit of balance, similar to the PMF (Product Market Fit) pursued in the AI track. In the view of Zero Gravity's founding team, "over - pursuing product performance and technological advancement isn't necessarily a good thing for the enterprise. Incremental development conforms to the rhythm of market demand evolution and is more in line with the laws of technological engineering implementation and industry development."

As the company's COO, Shi Hong plays the role of a "general manager". He needs to predict and control various risks that the enterprise may face in future operations. As a flying enthusiast, Shi Hong is also a in - depth experience user, able to provide real user demand feedback to the R & D team from the perspective of a "product manager".

One detail is that during the process of Zero Gravity's team refining products, Shi Hong often had "conflicts" with the R & D department. Sometimes, R & D personnel would make the parameters higher and higher, deviating from user needs, and Shi Hong would cut off these additional items one by one.

When the team designed the first electric fixed - wing aircraft, since the technology was relatively mature, the design department wanted to make the aircraft look as sci - fi as possible, adding a lighting system and ultra - luxurious interiors. However, these didn't have any substantial help for flight at that time.

"At that stage, users pursued low - cost and safe flight. Prematurely pursuing luxurious interiors would bring greater pressure on the aircraft's initial cost, subsequent airworthiness certification, and later maintenance." Finally, Shi Hong successfully persuaded the team to remove these additional items.

Research results aren't equivalent to technological products. Whoever can match laboratory technology with user needs faster can better capture customers and the market.

Shi Hong's cross - border entrepreneurial experience and product - manager perspective complement the technology - driven engineer team. Engineers are responsible for pursuing performance, while he is responsible for achieving user - required functions with the minimum cost. The concept of "pursuing practicality, not parameters" also influences the design and production of Zero Gravity's various generations of aircraft models.

It's reported that once the RX1E - A "Ruixiang" was launched, it received 22 confirmed orders in the first batch.

It will take at least 3 years for the industry to show a competitive gap

In 2024, the low - altitude economy was written into the government work report for the first time as a new growth engine for the national economy, and market attention soared. The primary market was sensitive, and the financing enthusiasm increased. Many drone and eVTOL projects that some institutions had invested in before became the stars of the track, enjoying great popularity.

At the end of the same year, the Central Air Traffic Management Committee decided to conduct eVTOL pilot projects in six cities: Hefei, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, and Chongqing. The competition among enterprises and industries is evolving into a competition among cities.

As a new business form involving the cross - integration of many industries, for the low - altitude economy to truly achieve development on the ground, it needs open airspace, supporting ground infrastructure, professional talents, and industrial chain support. Based on Hefei's industrial accumulation and policy support in fields such as new - energy vehicles, high - end equipment, new materials, and the new generation of information technology, Zero Gravity's development in Hefei progressed rapidly, and it also received two rounds of hundreds of millions of yuan in financing from Hefei's state - owned assets in 2024.

Compared with the scale and frequency of financing of some leading projects at that time, Zero Gravity wasn't very prominent. The founding team's view on "burning money" explains the rhythm issue to some extent.

"We started thinking about making money from the very beginning of the company's establishment." The company's management doesn't think that low - altitude entrepreneurship will fall into the long - term money - burning logic like that of new - energy vehicle startups. "At least Zero Gravity won't." This is also the underlying logic of the three - generation aircraft model strategy: to make a product in the shortest time to help the company earn money quickly, maintain a stable cash flow, and invest in the R & D and production of the next - generation product.

In terms of valuation, there is currently a certain bubble in the low - altitude economy track. The market and investors' expectations for the future potential of emerging industries can tolerate short - term high valuations. As long as they invest in the right companies, the returns from growth can completely offset this premium.

However, in a field like autonomous driving or new - energy vehicle startups that requires long - term verification, definite market demand, break - throughable technological bottlenecks, and a large enough industrial ecosystem are crucial. In this process, startups need to endure the shocks brought by the industry's de - bubbling and control the rhythm well, with a more reasonable plan for commercialization.

Currently, the first - generation mature model, the RX1E - A electric fixed - wing aircraft, has fully completed the commercialization cycle and is the product of Zero Gravity closest to large - scale commercial implementation. As of March this year, the RX1E series of aircraft have received more than a thousand intent orders, including nearly 60 confirmed orders. The customers are mainly general aviation companies.

Zero Gravity's first - generation model, RX1E - A "Ruixiang"

Compared with the European and American markets, there are too few people with flying licenses in China at present. However, some industry analysts point out that China's general aviation market will enter a period of rapid development in the next 30 years. The market will train a large number of flight personnel, and the demand for flight training aircraft will increase explosively. The variable cost of Zero Gravity's RX1E - A is only 1/5 of that of traditional fuel - powered aircraft, and the comprehensive cost is about half of it. RX1E - A is expected to capture a part of the traditional training aircraft market share in the short to medium term, providing a continuous cash flow for the R & D investment of the company's next two generations of aircraft models.

The second - generation model, ZG - ONE, has received more than a thousand intent orders. The team predicts that after ZG - ONE is officially launched into the market in 2026, it will replace RX1E - A as Zero Gravity's new king of commercial revenue.

Zero Gravity's second - generation model, ZG - ONE "Quefei"

Shi Hong said that the profits earned from the first two generations of aircraft models will be used for the R & D of the ZG - T6 model. This is the aircraft model of Zero Gravity with the longest range, the greatest technical difficulty, and the one that will bring the most commercial revenue to the company.

Zero Gravity's third - generation model, ZG - T6 (rendering)

The Zero Gravity team predicts that 2028 will be the time node when the industry shows the first wave